EFRI-PSBR: Microalgae Lab-on-Chip Photobioreactor Platform for Genetic Screening and Metabolic Analysis Leading to Scalable Biofuel Production

EFRI-PSBR：微藻芯片实验室光生物反应器平台，用于遗传筛选和新陈代谢分析，导致可扩展的生物燃料生产INTELCTUAL MERIT多学科研究团队将开发具有在单细胞分辨率下精确分析和操纵平行样品的微流控芯片实验室设备。这些设备将使多个实验参数能够在一个用户友好的平台上集成。然后，这些设备将被用于分析和优化工程重组光合作用微藻的生长和产烃潜力。具体的测试案例将是一种重组的快速生长的莱茵衣藻菌株，它将被改造成表达一种高产的碳氢化合物生物合成基因系统，该基因系统来自生长缓慢的微小alaga，即布氏芽孢杆菌。这些生物产生的这些特定碳氢化合物特别令人感兴趣，因为它们可以很容易地转化为石油当量燃料。这项拟议的研究将产生广泛的科学影响，因为所开发的微流控平台将直接促进并极大地加速微生物介导的生物燃料和生物代谢物生产的一般领域的研究和开发。教育成果将包括通过研究培训下一代微生物生物能源工程师和科学家，让本科生和少数族裔学生、当地高中生和高中教师参与，并结合参与机构的现有计划，为他们提供早期接触科学和工程的机会。这个项目将允许来自多个学科(工程学、微生物学、生物化学)的学生进行互动，并获得跨学科研究的第一手经验。

EFRI-PSBR: Microalgae Lab-on-Chip Photobioreactor Platform for Genetic Screening and Metabolic Analysis Leading to Scalable Biofuel ProductionINTELLECTUAL MERITThe multi-disciplinary research team will develop microfluidic lab-on-chip devices with capabilities to precisely assay and manipulate parallel samples at single-cell resolution. The devices will enable the integration of multiple experimental parameters on a single user-friendly platform. These devices will then be used to analyze and optimize the growth and hydrocarbon production potential of an engineered recombinant photosynthetic microalgae. The specific test case will be a recombinant, fast growing Chlamydomonas reinhardtii algal strain that will be engineered to express a high-yielding hydrocarbon biosynthetic gene system derived from the slow-growing microalaga, Botryococcus braunii. These specific hydrocarbons produced by these organisms are of particular interest because they can be readily converted into petroleum-equivalent fuels. BROADER IMPACTSThe proposed research will have broad scientific impact because the developed microfluidic platforms will directly contribute to and dramatically accelerate research and development in the general area of microbe-mediated biofuel and biometabolite production. Educational outcomes will include training of the next generation of microbial bioenergy engineers and scientists through research, involving undergraduate and minority students, local high school students, and high-school teachers in conjunction with existing programs at the participating institutions to provide them with early exposure to science and engineering. This project will allow students from multiple disciplines (engineering, microbiology, biochemistry) to interact and gain first hand experience in interdisciplinary research.